Foetuses Are Aware of Their Surroundings
He leads me …
In her biography Straight Up Ruby Tui, who has represented New Zealand women in both 15 a side and seven a side rugby union, talks about the song ’You are my sunshine’. As a young girl it seemed strangely familiar. As she put it, ‘I didn’t know the song, but I knew the song’. She asked her mother about it. Ruby’s mother explained, ‘Oh, your dad sang that to you every single morning when you were in my belly.’ In that moment it all made sense to Ruby, and it became clear why she always felt very loved as a small child.[1]
As Christians we probably remember some accounts in the Bible of what happened to babies in the womb. In Luke chapter 1 we read that John the Baptist meets Jesus before they were both born.
Mary and Elizabeth met just after Jesus was conceived (Luke 1:41 & 44 NIV)
41. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
44. As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
John’s ha\d recognised Mary’s voice and acknowledged the unborn Messiah who had just been conceived. This meeting was the start of John’s calling from God to prepare the way for Jesus’ ministry. At this time too, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41) and she refers to Jesus as her Lord (Luke 1:43,45). These events show that Jesus was a person at His conception and not when He was born.
Prior to this John the Baptist’s father Zacharias had no idea that God would answer his and his wife Elizabeth’s prayers for a child in such an amazing way. He appears to have given up about being a father after years of disappointment. But God had not given up on it, even though Zacharias and Elizabeth had.
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zacharias! For I have come to tell you that God has heard your prayer, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son! And you are to name him John. You will both have great joy and gladness at his birth, and many will rejoice with you. For he will be one of the Lord’s great men. He must never touch wine or hard liquor - and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from before his birth! And he will persuade many a Jew to turn to the Lord his God. He will be a man of rugged spirit and power like Elijah, the prophet of old; and he will precede the coming of the Messiah, preparing the people for his arrival. He will soften adult hearts to become like little children’s, and will change disobedient minds to the wisdom of faith. (Luke 1:11–17 TLB).[2]
What we read in the Bible about foetuses moving is baked up by science.
Dr. Jerome LeJeune, genetics professor at the University of Descartes in Paris, states, ‘After fertilization has taken place a new human being has come into being.’ Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth of Harvard University Medical School says much the same thing when he says, ‘It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception.’
Psalm 139:13-16 explains God’s intimate involvement in creating a baby –
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit them together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it. You were there while I was being formed in utter seclusion! You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book! (TLB)
‘You knit me together in my mother’s womb.’ Each person, regardless of their parentage or shortcoming, has been personally knitted together by God in the womb. Each day of their life has been prepared by God before they existed (Psalm 139:16).[3]
To be ‘knit together in our mother’s womb’ is a helpful description of how DNA molecules are connected. DNA molecules are polymers. Polymers are large molecules that are built up by repeatedly linking together smaller molecules, called monomers.
It is like how this sentence is built by sticking together a sequence of individual letters with the right spaces and punctuation. In each case, the large structure - a sentence, or a DNA molecule - is composed of smaller structures that are linked together in non-random sequences – like letters and biologically, DNA monomers.[4]
To be ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ is not the same as being perfectly made.
· God constructs each unborn child, but we all have weaknesses and defects.
· God constructs each unborn child, but some have life-altering or life-threatening disabilities.
In each case the child is fearfully and wonderfully made - but is not perfect.
God forms each of us, but His work is affected by the sin and brokenness in our world. Examples of perfect humanity are only found in the original creation and after the resurrection. Once we have been resurrected, we will be fearfully and wonderfully made - and perfect.[5]
Our weaknesses and birth defects are caused in various ways. These include our genes which carry the information which we inherited from our parents, our behaviours, and environmental influences.
We also know through scientific reports that children growing in their mother’s womb can be affected by what she consumes while she is pregnant. Such things as alcohol, illegal drugs, and some prescription and over-the-counter medications are known to cause birth defects if taken during pregnancy.
Yet even with these influences we can see the hand of God at work in the defects and injuries that He has allowed.[6] Romans 5:3-5 sets it out quite clearly for us -
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady. Then, when that happens, we are able to hold our heads high no matter what happens and know that all is well, for we know how dearly God loves us, and we feel this warm love everywhere within us because God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. (Romans 5:3-5 TLB)
We can see how the Lord uses both the positive and negative events in our lives to enable us to put our full trust in Him, and to become more like Jesus.
Dear Reader – If you have found some value in this blog, please feel free to send a copy on to your family and friends. Kind regards, John
[1] Ruby Tui, Straight Up, Allen & Unwin, Auckland, 2022, p20
[2] 5 Bible Passages That Affirm the Personhood of the Unborn, Rachael Tracy, thefamilyleader.com
https://www.if714.com/devotions/5-bible-passages-that-affirm-the-personhood-of-the-unborn/
[3] Biblical Perspectives on Unborn Children, Randy Alcorn, Eternal Perspective Ministries;
https://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Mar/2/biblical-perspectives-unborn-children/
[4] Khan Academy, khanacademy.org, Mountain View, California;
https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/biomolecules/dna/a/dna-structure-and-function
[5] Formed by God. Psalm 139:13-16, William Higgins, williamshiggins.net;
https://williamshiggins.net/2019/04/04/formed-by-god-psalm-13913-16-2/
[6] Psalm 139 – Praise and Prayer To The God Who Knows All And Is Everywhere, David Guzik, Enduring Word;
